Don't Take Power Ups From Strangers
by Ultimatedaywriter
Summary: Two energy life forms are in the Naruto world giving out energy and reaping rewards when something dies. They don't gamble they invest. Now there is a spider colony bent on overthrowing their human oppressors. Worms are raping each other. And Naruto and Sasuke each get a free hit. MA for Lemons later maybe.
1. Chapter 1

Once he was a person now, he was Red and Blue. From his essence bound to a seed his mind formed two personalities. Spawned from the same genesis they floated through the void. Cast out in the void of space they no longer had a sense of time or distance from where they began.

"This is all your fault. We should have fought to the bitter end. Death is better than this." Red yelled at his brother.

Both were less than wisps of energy attached to a seed. Incapable of speech they still communicating with one another. Through a unique form of energy manipulation, they could send signals to one another and interpret those signals. As they hurtled through space all that kept them sane was arguing.

"We were beaten and acted to save ourselves. Do you regret it Red?" Blue asked.

"If it had been all or nothing then we wouldn't be in this mess. We might have won against whoever we fought." Red muttered.

"You don't remember do you. I should have known you were never the most intuitive side of us." Blue said.

"Do you remember smart guy?" Red asked.

"Of course, but I forgot a long time ago." Blue muttered.

"So, you don't know!" Red yelled triumphantly.

Before Blue could reply, they crashed down. For a moment they said nothing, their energies collected as they tried to form their thoughts. But before they could come up with something, they were picked up and something was carrying them.

"How dare whatever it is touch me." Red yelled.

Before Blue could stop him Red made his move. The tiny seed picked up by an ant unleashed a torrent of red energy. The red energy collected around the ant before being sucked inside of it. The ant froze as lines of Red's essence spread across the creature. Moments later the ant returned to moving towards the colony.

"Red what did you do?" Blue demanded.

"I made it better, that's what I did." Red said.

Blue sent his own essence out cautiously and felt the ant up. He could see it as Red and not Red. It was a creature filled with Red's essence. The red that wasn't Red spread quickly through the ant making the creature bulk up. The ant was growing faster seemingly throwing caution to the wind and charging. The ant left the carefully placed pheromone trail it had been following and found a shortcut. With the seed on the ant's back it went through a dark dank tunnel and was suddenly trapped in silk.

"Well, I see what you did. You made it just like you. Now its trapped and you've lost a lot of essence." Blue muttered.

"It isn't over until it's over fight little guy." Red snarled

The ant struggled with all its might even as silk fell upon it. A large black spider with a red hourglass on its thorax continued to pour silk upon the ant. As the ant thrashed it only wound itself up tighter in the sticky silk. The spider simply crawled down from its web and bet the now prone ant. Then as the ant died something amazing happened. Red's essence returned to him with interest. If Red had been a 1 before he pushed his essence into the ant, he was a 2.5 now.

**Red 2.5**

**Blue 1**

"Do you see that Red? It looks like the spider took in your essence but didn't change." Blue said.

"The damn thing, I'll fix that right now." Red yelled

"No, it's my turn. You had the last one." Blue said.

"Fine, but don't put too much into it. The ant felt like it was ready to pop." Red said.

Blue slipped his essence out while the spider fed and pushed a little at a time into the spider. When his own essence dipped below 20%, he stopped supplying the spider with essence. They watched without eyes as the spider began to change. She grew blue veins across her body and began to act differently. The spider acted more intelligent.

Over the following days, it redesigned its web and caught more prey. It opted to use more web to create lines and traps. As it caught more insects and grew its body turned from its original black to a blue shade. Its silk began to glow with blue essence as it fed on ever more insects. Small volts of electricity began to run through the web. Now web didn't just trap an insect it electrocuted them. This little spider had learned how to express its blue essence as a form of conjuration and enchantment. As it grew larger Blue waited for his chance to feast upon the spider's death.

"This is boring, one of mine would have died a long time ago." Red said.

**Red 15**

**Blue 0.20**

Red had taken to infecting insects with his essence then reaping the reward immediately after they were killed by Widow. Now Widow was in a cocoon going through a metamorphosis. She had eaten so many bugs over the past month that she needed to change. Blue realized he was a victim of his own success. By making Blue more intelligent, she survived longer and would die later. It had been a month and she was too timid to go out and die like Red's insects.

A tiny spider of Widow's species entered her nest and Blue realized this was his chance. If he enhanced this one and it decided to kill Widow, then he would reap the benefits. Blue invested down to his last percent. On the male widow. Hopefully, they would see each other as rivals and kill each other.

"Blue you aren't looking so hot." Red said.

Blue didn't respond, he waited for his chance to regain his interest. The male spider was blue now just a shade off from Widow. He could travel on her web without dying after the infusion. While Widow mutated in her cocoon, he altered her web and caught a few bugs. After a week the male spider was as large as the female had been initially. Just as Blue was losing hope of ever getting his return the cocoon opened. From within was a massive blue spider with a much larger head and sleeker form crawled free.

It did something with the male touching her legs against his, then it attacked. It bit the male and inject venom into its mate. Blue felt for the first time in months an inflow of essence and it felt amazing. More essence than he'd felt in a long time rushed into him.

**Blue 50**

**Red 20**

"That's no fair, you have more essence than I do now." Red grumbled.

"I had much less than you did for the past month. I'm sure you'll bounce back. Maybe you should let some of your infused go and fight some. It's boring killing them immediately." Blue said.

"I wouldn't mind seeing some of mine actually wreck something." Red said.

Red sent his essence out to a nearby amphibian. Red lines immediately covered the frog as Red told it to act natural. The frog hopped around eating moths and started changing colors to a nice dark red. It survived an hour before a kid accidently stomped it to death. Red grumbled at the sudden death after an hour of success.

Blue snickered as Red collected his now wasted essence. The return had only been 30% of the investment. Red realized that he'd given the frog a lot of essence, but it only survived an hour. Some of the webbed or shocked bugs survived multiple hours. The frog didn't eat many bugs it didn't push itself.

**Red 23**

**Blue 50**

Over the next month Widow started making an egg sack. Each of the tiny eggs were filled with Blue essence and blue couldn't wait. Only a few eggs were red. It seemed eating a ton of Red's bugs influenced it.

"I have a better idea watch this." Red said.

He hit a bunch of different insects around them with a little essence each. With their growing essence they had greater range. It made carpet bombing possible. Red was diminished to a single essence. It would be an hours before the return would be worth the wasted essence. Some of the ground had soaked up the essence instead of the creatures.

Worms in the dirt had absorbed Red's essence and began raping other worms. Slugs did the same becoming bolder than ever. Beetles survived the occasional stomping, and frogs grew ever larger and sturdier as they took risks to consume more. Though many died some survived for over a day.

**Red 110**

**Blue 50**

Blue released some of his essence into a fly and instead of withdrawing himself, he put himself in the driver's seat. In an instant everything changed. He no longer felt a tentative link like he felt with other creatures with his essence. He could feel the fly's mind pushing against his, he could feel the insects six legs, and flap tiny wings. As Blue in fly form, he knew where the spider's webs lie. He crawled on the ground until he was well out of range.

"Blue what are you doing you're here and there?" Red asked.

"I'm one of the bugs, I'm going to go out and see the world. I'll tell you about what the world looks like." Blue said as he used the fly's wings to lift off the ground.

More information about how to use the wings flooded his mind from the fly. Essence filled the wings as Blue worked them altering them as Blue's essence fed off the body. The fly's mind was growing more powerful as Blue explored. Warning bells were going off as red sticky tongue flew out for his tiny form. Blue flew higher until with the fly's eyes, he saw a large group of monuments. It was a mountain with four human heads on it. That told Blue that they were in a world with humans. Blue continued to fly up seeing a world with ninja running on roof tops, a boy with blond hair wearing orange ran from some animal masked men and jumped hitting fly Blue. Blue thought the boy had a bit too much Red in him even with the orange get up. So, he pushed half of a fly's worth of essence into him. The fly's mind kicked him out then and he went back to his own place in the seed. He was tethered to the boy over a vast distance now and only received a single word.

"One of the human's in this world is called Naruto Uzumaki." Blue stated.

"Human's huh, lets fill them with our essence, so when they die, we can cash out big time." Red suggested.

"Nah, we don't have enough at all. We need to have a ton more before we can think about possessing a human or filling one up all the way." Blue said.

"How would you know?" Red asked.

"I gave half that fly's essence to the that human." Blue said.

**Blue 15**

**Red 180**

"You sure are into those far off investments. Are you planning to take control of him?" Red asked.

Blue could easily look through Naruto's eyes but that was it. Something dangerous was there and he didn't want to poke at it. No Blue would need build up his essence again. He couldn't wait for the Widowlings to hatch. He knew his essence improved the mind and cunning while Red improved action and power. There was a danger in giving a human his essence. If it grew enough in the boy for Naruto to begin expressing it, then it would be a problem. What are the odds of a boy in kill me orange becoming a problem?

As Red watched his progeny die off to a few spider eggs and earth worms he collected ever more power. He couldn't help but think Blue a fool. It was better to get your investment's up front. Widow might not die for decades if Blue didn't do something. Red was starting to remember that they were once more than the sum of their parts. Even with vast amounts of more essence Red wasn't the type to look around. He could see what his progeny saw and feel what they felt. Unlike Blue he couldn't express his essence in the form of insight. It limited his ability to detect and study things. At the same time, he was focused. He wondered if Blue thought him dumb. Action and power were not synonymous with idiocy. When he could act, he acted.

That's what he planned to do. A red frog wondered into a schoolhouse and was picked up by a raven-haired kid. The kid had the dumbest expression on his face as he walked the toad back outside. Red sent a bit of power through the toad and shocked the kid with his essence. It was only a light shock. The kid dropped the toad and Red felt a tiny amount of his essence slip into the kid. Red saw through the kid's eyes and suddenly time began to slow. The toad hopped away in slow motion as Sasuke remained frozen. Red quickly left the kid's mind and returned to the seed. Hopefully, Blue didn't notice.

"Hey Red, that fly finally died." Blue said. Blue was alit with his own essence.

"How did that happen?" Red asked.

"I took control of it long enough to drive it into a spider's web." Blue said.

"Good thinking. Well I'm going to watch the spiders develop." Red said. Blue gave the equivalent of a nod and Red let out an imaginary breath. As intelligent as Blue could be, he was blessedly unfocused on Red.

Red looked up to see the spider slowly building a more complex nest with multiple floors of shocking blue silk. He realized that the spider could expose them if it got the bright idea to wage war against mankind. They had to kill Widow chan…


	2. Chapter 2

Beneath the underside of rotten housing eight legged creatures planned. Under the chittering sounds of hundreds of creatures their webs were built and torn down. To the ears of a human those screeches and clicks would sound frighteningly alien. It was the language of a culture alien and in the dark built under the cover of rotten wood. A labyrinth of silken web and rotten wood was slowly forming behind a rotten wall. There was unity in the building of this labyrinth, when one of the many chose to vary on the path their work was removed. Web designs beautiful to the mind of spiderlings had no place in Widow's greater design. Their mother was brutal and willing to kill some of her more individualistic children. Only those too sloppy in their silk work and designated farm work were allowed any freedom. So long as food remained plentiful the farmer spiders were relatively free.

Blue watched them work and build the beginnings of civilization. He'd studied the minds of his progeny and learned subtility. He could overpower the mind and drive it to its death but that was hardly productive. What was the point of learning if knowledge was never applied? Taking control of a mind was blunt and cost him essence. Giving one of his progenies an idea and reminding her repeatedly, that was simple. It was easy to slip in and feed her a grand design. The best part of all, he only had to hint at a destination she did most of the work. Predictably, she took the shortest route from A to B.

"I don't see how helping them build a civilization is in our best interest. Besides a few dead spiderlings you haven't reaped near as much essence as I have. If anything, you're helping me more by using my roaches as livestock." Red said.

"How is Bully by the way?" Blue asked. Red sighed and Blue knew he hit a nerve.

"The damn thing won't die, and it keeps going after larger prey. Its skin is poisonous, hard as rock, and scaled like armor. Bully has taken to eating toads, lizards, fish, and snakes. It's been three months, but the frog is growing stronger. I don't know when it will level out like Widow." Red said.

That was a low blow on Blue's part. Widow had reached the end of her evolution. She had an essence of over 5000 but that number grew no greater. In comparison, Bully had a score of over 12,000 and still growing. Each spiderlings averaged 500 essence. They were growing more intelligent every day. Unlike Widow their growth wasn't exponential it was merely linear. They'd already created a language of chirping and clicking. He'd give them the idea of recording their language in a static way. That was the next step in their evolution. Widow was at a dead end. He'd have to replace her soon, when tyranny was no longer useful.

**Blue 1000+**

** Red 5000+**

In a pit below the labyrinth around the rotten wood of an ancient floor were roaches. Carcasses, trash, and plant matter were fed to the as as sustenance. Silk was used as a natural barrier to keep the roaches in line. The spiderlings cared for the insects as they fattened them up to be eaten by the growing colony. Slowly, the roach farms were coming together. The widows were learning how to farm the roaches at an incredible pace. With every loss of life, they adjusted their techniques and improved. These widows who farmed out of Widow's watchful eyes scored essence in the 3000s. It was a lesson for Blue. In order to thrive freedom was needed. His progeny needed the freedom to make mistakes and correct them.

While Blue toiled with his little spider colony, Red was giving Bully his undivided attention. Bully the frog was in a place filled with deadly creatures. Over the course of a month the frog had made its way out of the village. It took chances and escaped despite the odds against it. This frog was a lucky one in a hundred. Its fortunes had been paid in full. Currently, it was waiting for a large hare to leave its burrow. Unlike many of Red's progeny Bully didn't lose patients and dig for the Hare. It waited until the six-foot-tall bunny stepped out of hiding before its long sticky, barbed, and spiked tongue shot out. The appendage speared through the rabbit's torso and pulled it to the frog's mouth. Bones shattered as the large amphibian broke the rabbit until it slid down its throat. With a ribbit the frog waited for the next one.

No amount to subtle hints could make the toad jump down and start devouring the rabbits. Bully had watched other frogs die from rushed attempts. This frog was intelligent in a way. It still functioned on instinct and had low impulse control, but it had a strong survival instinct. So Red tried another approach. He could be patient just as the frog was. He ordered Bully to mate with the large frogs in the river that ran through the forest. The frog turned to the river and did nothing. Red had all the time in the world. He sent the desire to find a mate to Bully repeatedly. Soon the frog could think of nothing but mating and it left for the river in a rush.

Red knew that he was different from Blue. While Blue was happy to sit around and wait for his little spider colony to grow, Red wanted his essence now. If his progeny was too durable and cautious to die so be it. He'd simply make his own colony with his own rules. Instead of making Blue's stable farming civilization he'd make a brutal tribal system. The first step was Bully mating with other frogs. All he had to do after that was take his hands off the wheel.

From a fly on the wall Blue watched the blond kid he'd infused some of his essence into branch out. The child in orange was much younger than Blue had thought. He couldn't have been older than four or five. Naruto Uzumaki was an interesting one or one with interests. He studied a book on Chakra theory like a boy possessed. In a manner of speaking, he was exactly that. Blue was more cautious with this one and made pain staking plans to limit the boy. A human could gain control over Blue's essence and make it his own. If they died their essence would still go to Blue but if they killed one of Blue's progeny, they could take the lion share of the essence. It was intuitive information. The spiders were far from gaining control over essence. Even if they did, Blue was close enough to begin crafting spells to see to that issue.

So, Blue decided to remove the boy's greatest tool spirit sensitivity. Without spirit sensitivity the boy would never begin to consciously control his own essence. For now, the boy had no idea he had his own essence. The fly Blue controlled was painstakingly modified for quieter wings. Essence and flies were wasted to craft Blue's avatar of stealth. Glands around the fly's legs produced a deadening mucus like a tick's saliva. Once it landed on the boy it couldn't be felt. Blue needed time to manipulate the essence in the boy. The other presence may interfere.

Blue landed on the boy's neck without issue. His avatar was quiet, and the boy never felt his touch. It was a good thing too; this fly was a one success out of a hundred failures. The others were all malformed and had to be cannibalized by the spiders. Blue focused on the essence within Naruto and began to shift it into an enchantment. The expression began to take shape in mere moments he'd finish his work. Just as the spell began to take hole everything went black and he was in front of a prison.

The red eyes of a giant fox glared down at him. Blue looked up at the creature and burst out laughing.

"Do you think me funny weakling?" The giant fox growled.

Blue rolled his nonexistent eyes and started multitasking. The fox had only drawn a tiny part of his consciousness inside Naruto. More precisely Blue was piloting the fly and some essence here simultaneously. Fortunately, there wasn't much conscious thought needed in keeping an avatar body immobile.

**Naruto Insight sealed 1.8%**

"Absolutely, a powerful construct like yourself bound by an enchantment hilarious. Did you think I wouldn't notice, or did you hope I'd be trapped here alongside you? I've seen such enchantments before. They have no hope of binding me unlike you." Blue said.

It was a bald-faced lie. The tag that read seal was built from complicated array in an alien enchantment language. It was keyed to the creature in the cage, but its power was nothing to sneeze at. Could blue out fox the seal? He'd need to study up on this world's enchantments. From what he could tell it didn't run off essence at all. From that conclusion he added another layer to his enchantment giving him a more direct feed into this boy's mind. He wouldn't be able to outright control it without tipping the boy off to the existence of essence. The boy was growing intelligent at an alarming rate. He wasn't born to it, but he could make a brilliant cultivator of the blue. Now Blue was gathering what the boy read.

"What are you doing here? I can sense your emotions from within my cage. You don't have the best of intentions towards my container." The fox said.

**Naruto Insight sealed 2.9%**

"Your container has a lot of potential. I don't care about the chakra junk, but I'd prefer if he didn't use the power, he borrowed from me. I'm rather choosy about who I lend my strength to." Blue said.

**Naruto Insight sealed 5.3%**

"That's obviously not the case if you gave him some of your power. I doubt it was much with your level of strength." The fox said.

**Naruto Insight sealed 9.5% **

It didn't seem like much but losing a whole 10% of a cultivator's insight was crippling. Naruto would never reach the higher stages of blue cultivation now. It wasn't enough Blue needed to seal the whole thing or risk the boy discovering a way to break the enchantments.

"What the boy took has grown already and it is continuing to grow within him. Do you want the boy to use his knowledge to strengthen your chains? With my power, I'm sure he'll study your seal and improve upon it. You'll be nothing more than a battery before long." Blue boasted.

If the boy learned enough, he could easily turn Blue into a battery given enough time. Blue and Red were in a very fragile situation. They were fragments of a soul attached to a seed.

**Naruto Insight sealed 15% **

"I sense your fear. You're terrified of the boy but not of me. Interesting, perhaps I'll tell my host all about you." The threat was blunt and very Red of the fox.

"Do you want something?" Blue asked. He still needed time.

**Naruto Insight sealing 25%**

"Perhaps, you can rip this seal away and remove the threat all together." The fox bargained.

"You're not the friendly type, are you? Don't answer that its rhetorical." Blue said. "So, what, I release you and you destroy the village with me in it. No one in their right mind would trust you."

"So, you're within the village." The fox said. Blue turned around and began to walk away.

**Naruto Insight sealing 45% **

When enchantments started taking hold they completed faster. This fox was cunning, but he was out of his depth. Blue's memories of his past self were returning. He knew how to create the enchantment. Binding the Insight of children was a common practice. Childhood was rife with various emotions and a dangerous time for anyone who wished to cultivate essence. Blue's original was lucky to come out of childhood with only two types of essence. His original's cultivation was twice as difficult for it.

"I will get out. I've done it before, and I'll do it again. When I do, I'll hunt you down and destroy you. Know this if the child dies, I'll be free from my prison." The fox said.

**Naruto Insight sealing 85% **

Blue knew that at age 21 the binding of insight would fail. It was an enchantment meant to have a shelf life. The strength of its sealing was balanced with its end clause. If this was a world filled with various types of essence Blue wouldn't bother. Naruto would simply absorb multiple types of essence and his cultivation would turn grey and he'd become soul blind. An affliction his original avoided by a stroke of good fortune. He learned to bind his own Insight limiting himself to only blue and red.

"By the time you escape from this child, it won't matter. Thanks for the chat Mr. Fox." Blue said.

**Naruto Insight Sealing 100% **


	3. Chapter 3

After three months of painstaking tyranny and vicious attacks by Widow the labyrinth was finished. It was a three-dimensional structure made of wood and silk. With the structure complete widow's children were finally free to do as they pleased. Spiders made ventures out of their nest and explored the outside world returning with tales of giants with nests of their own. With each story explaining the new and fantastical discoveries the spiderlings grew more creative. The farmer spiderlings came before their mother the widow with their desire for payment for their work.

Blue was lucky, he was watching during the meeting. Otherwise widow would have killed them for daring to ask for payment. Instead Blue soothed her mind and told her it was a good thing. They could pay her and her children a percentage of their livestock for the building of the labyrinth. More spiderlings would be born who had no part in the great building. Their mothers could pay for the extra food. More structures were appearing within the abandoned, rotten shop in the red-light district. Egg sacs were placed in the protective center of the labyrinth.

Over the last few months, he'd encouraged male and females of Widow's species to come here. He altered them with a little essence and new blood was added to the growing population. The tiny shed even with roach farms wouldn't be enough for the growing population for long. He could sense Widows children across the village making their own nests. Instead of following their mother's building plans they crafted their own nests. Others joined them and tiny colonies began to form. So, Blue decided to give Widow a new idea.

Roads were the key to linking the nests all around Konoha. Widow's granddaughters saw this as their time, their great project. They scouted locations often dying to predators such as bats, lizards, and rats. In these troubled times vocal story telling wasn't enough. A new evolution began just under Blue's nose. It was in full swing before he realized they'd developed a writing system. In the soggy wood pulp, they wrote with primitive pictures telling tales and creating signs.

**Blue 50,000**

** Red 150,000**

"Are you done micromanaging them?" Red asked.

"They need guidance. If I don't calm Widow chan she'll go full tyrant and halt their evolution." Blue defended.

"Then kill her and replace her with one of her children. Are those a subspecies?" Red asked.

"Pretorian guards, they're her most aggressive daughters. After she picked them out and turned them into her enforcers a caste system developed." Blue said.

"Have you noticed anyone else getting eyes for your project?" Red gleefully asked.

"What's happening now and what happened to that frog of yours?" Blue asked.

"Bully has a ton of tadpoles murdering everything that doesn't eat them first. When the first batch left the river, they started keeping some of the tree leeches. Now they're farming them like with my roaches. I was wondering, could you give them some of your essence?" Red asked.

Blue focused on some nearby flies. There were so many of them that Blue didn't keep track anymore. The spider civilization was his pet project. He took control of the flies and infected many of the leeches. He left a desire to breed behind in the leeches then turned his attention away from them.

Naruto saw a blue spider on his desk and froze. The spider saw him and started booking it. Instead of attacking the spider, he let it climb up its web to his ceiling. Naruto left the house for an hour while the spider made its nest in the corner of the wall. It was one of Widow chan's granddaughters. The widowling didn't have the talent for roach farming. She was a poet and enjoyed writing about humans.

"Do you have anything nearby to watch this?" Blue asked.

"Some civilians found one of your progeny's nests. They purchased a lot of insecticides and they plan to kill them all. Many of the spiders have already fled but some refuse to leave their home." Red informed. "I would have already attacked the civilians. What will you do?" Red asked.

"This is a learning experience. I want to see how the spiderlings deal with threats."

Naruto returned with a box of maggots. He took one and tossed it into the spiderling's web. She quickly wrapped up the specimen and bit it. Naruto finished feeding her before returning to his desk to read his book on chakra control. The spiderlings was curious about the human who fed her. Many of her kind wrote of the horrors of the giants. They often went out of their way to kill her kind for no reason. This was something different.

Blue turned his attention from Naruto and found a group of civilians poisoning the widowling nest. He watched from the eyes of a pretorian who wanted revenge. This new avenue was promising to say the least. Blue stoked the flames and encouraged it to report to Widow. The pretorian memorized the faces of the humans who wiped out an entire nest. It ordered other widowlings to watch them while she reported to their queen.

**Blue 95,000**

** Red 150,000**

This was what Blue wanted all along. It was no secret to Red. With expansion came war. The alien minds of the spiders merged with Blue of all creatures was bound to pull some friction. Blue was the careful type up until now he'd kept the spiders from retaliating. Red would have started this little war after one of his was crushed by a human. Then again Red didn't care about his progeny as much as Blue seemed to. At the end of the day the spiders were no greater than the roaches they farmed.

The few Red spiders within the hive were intelligent and impulsive. They had the mental capacity of Widow's children with Red's essence. They argued for war from the beginning and they'd be even more vocal with an entire colony destroyed. The spiders would deliberate for a while over the matter. Widow chan's power over them was waning with the invention of the roads. That must have been Blue's plan all along.

Red watched young Naruto toss a tiny ball. The widowling went out of her way to retrieve the tiny rubber ball for the boy. He watched as she discovered the wonders of paper and ink from Naruto's stationary. Naruto was confused by the spider's intelligence. Red was certain Blue wasn't paying attention to the development. Blue was capable of being blind by his experiments. Because he wanted the spider civilization to succeed, he lacked the time to focus on a potential problem. Red wouldn't say a thing.

"Hey red could you infuse these slugs with your essence. I'm going to introduce a new product to the colony. It's about time that they diversified their farming." Blue said.

"No, I think it's better that you use your own essence. We already have one livestock for each with each other's essence. That should be enough." Red told him.

Blue let it go. Red had a point if they fed their progeny with their progeny, they would grow more powerful. It could be why Widow chan hasn't evolved again. He started by infusing the same species of roach as his spider's livestock. He sent them to intermingle with the red roaches and let them reproduce. Then he tempted Widow to only eat the roaches that felt like her color essence. As he implanted the thought, he saw something interesting.

Within Widow's private chambers within the labyrinth, there was a floating pebble. Widow was using her essence to levitate the pebble from the ground. She was using a spell that Blue hadn't taught her. He payed close attention adding the occasional hint as she worked the pebble. She was beginning to gain fine control and her essence was growing more potent. She was developing her own version of insight. Soul sight was an important skill for any cultivator human or otherwise.

In a fit of paranoia, Blue placed an enchantment on her to limit the amount of essence she could absorb. Her insight had no limit placed on it unlike Naruto. At the cost of over 50,000 essence, Blue placed that same enchantment on the other widowlings. Once it was complete, he relaxed. They could still gain essence from one another but 60% would always go to Blue. If she every messed with the enchantment he'd take drastic measures.

**Blue 45,000**

** Red 160,000 **

Hundreds of widowlings gathered from across the village. They argued in their chittering language over the deaths of a colony. They wanted blood and war. Many proposed they kill as many humans as possible. The red widows were especially vocal about that idea.

Without his approval Widow gave an order. "Let those responsible pay for the lives of my children. Tonight, they die and no one else." Telekinetic force bound every widowling in the meeting when she spoke.

She made the action look effortless, but Blue could tell it took everything she had. Her essence would take time to restore her spirit reserves. Blue felt a sense of pride for her. Widow was starting to evolve once more and didn't need him to feed her ideas. He decided to take a step back and see where her leadership took her colony.

They shrieked their approval of their mother's power and the pretorians left to prepare. A lone widowling approached the queen. She was the same spider who ran from Naruto.

"Thank you for restraining yourself great brood mother. I have made a friend of one of them." The widowling said.

"What is this word friend?" Widow demanded.

Blue would have rolled his eyes if he could. He filled her in with a few hints.

"He is like brood but not of our line. In time we will be as my brood mates and I are." The spiderlings said.

"Don't lead him here. You may see him with my blessing. When he is truly like your broodmates, I will meet him. Teach him our speech if he's able." Widow ordered.

In the dead of night, a new caste was created the quietest stalkers. The ones who wiped out a colony were in their nests and lone widowlings found them. They propelled down from their ceilings while the murderers thought themselves safe. Deadly fangs bit them injecting as much venom as windowly possible. Small electric shocks from their fangs killed the nerves so their victims never felt a thing. The widowlings left the homes and the silent war began.

"Why did you hide this from me?" Blue asked.

"I hid nothing, you were too busy to pay attention." Red said. "I also have a civilization and you don't see me micromanaging them." Red said.

"You don't know enough about them." Blue accused. Red zapped him causing pain to shoot through blue's mind.

"That's the great thing about being us. If we don't expose ourselves, we can wait a while and try again. Even if all the spiders died you could restart." Red said.

"Damn that hurt, you used the electrical energy we use to communicate and increased the energy output. Because I wasn't resisting it you hit me directly." Blue analyzed. "The fox knows about us and actively wants to destroy us. We should probably make bodies for ourselves." Blue muttered.

This time when Red shocked him, he blocked it out. Red upped the frequency, but Blue was ready at this point. When red calmed down after wasting his essence Blue opened the channel again.

"Who's the fox and why does he matter?" Red asked.

"He's a being made from chakra that lives inside Naruto." Blue replied.

"Oh, so he's not exactly out in the open and able to do things. Why is he a problem?" Red asked.

"He's strong enough to shatter mountains from what I've been able to research. The Hokage has taken to killing my flies on the wall. I've been unable to spy on him for some time. I've learned nothing else about the fox." Blue admitted.

They watched Naruto and mimicking his widowling friend's speech with varying degrees of success. She was beginning to copy his kanji and recreated her own spider version of the system. Another evolution was on the horizon.


	4. Chapter 4

A collection of animal bones, spider silk, and wood formed a golem moved about by telekinesis. This rudimentary golem was the latest in the Artesan caste's design. Widow chan had the golem move about collecting dried out corpses of mice, squirrels, and bats. She'd developed a taste for larger prey recently. The bones and hide of her discarded prey would be broken down and processed to create more golems for her children, grandchildren, and greatgrandchildren. Before Ao, her daughter befriended the giant Naruto, they lacked many words. New castes had to be created and spots filled quickly with the new information. That was their way. They learned quickly and adapted she as the leader simplified the process with the caste system. Her children were defined by their jobs and what they did for the good of the hive. As the queen Widow chan managed them and ensured everything ran smoothly.

Lately, she was changing. Her thoughts were coming quicker and there was always some new trick to try with her telekinesis. The golems were technically puppets a tool used by a caste of ninja within the giant civilization called puppeteers. They used rudimentary strings much like her own silk to move the puppets about. The difference was, she didn't need silk to move her golems. She'd grown larger again and it was time to wrap herself in silk and rest.

Widow took her time adding the blue of her telekinesis with her silk charging it in a way. Many of her daughters have gone through a similar process to her first transformation. When they emerged, their bodies were covered in hairy spikes. Instead of wielding the power of their minds, they shocked their prey with volts of lightning. They were always collecting copper. Then there were the cold ones. A caste all their own within her nest. Their silk was winter, their venom froze their prey, and the air grew cold in their presence. They lived in the darkest parts of the nests singing and spinning their own webs.

When her web was ready, she took her place in the center. Slowly, she wrapped herself up in her own silk. She worried for her brood, but this couldn't be put off any longer. She'd rest and reawaken stronger than ever.

Nothing was planned and that was ok. Blue watched Widow form another cocoon and change again. All of it was a learning experience. They were calling the killings between the civilians in the village and his spider progeny the silent war. A fitting name. Widowlings were taking ever greater precautions building their nests in less hospitable areas. It didn't seem to matter the civilians found them eventually and wiped out a nest. Then the widows retaliated. For now, the widows didn't seek to outright kill every human they could. It was a remarkable show in self restraint in Blue's opinion.

At this point, he wasn't giving any hints to the widowlings. He'd infused more mammals. Rats, bats, and squirrels and watched their intelligence increase and level off. At a point most creatures stopped improving and rested on their success. On occasion there was the unique one who continued to improve. They were cultivators and like Widow they would continue to evolve. Eventually, they'd die, and Blue would collect their accumulated essence.

**Blue 15,000,000+ 5000/day**

**Red 15,000,000+ 5000/day**

Instead of micromanaging their numbers and insuring they formed the beginnings of a civilization that protected individuals, Blue was experimented. By infusing his essence into an object, he could create an artefact. Artefacts were sentient equipment. The seed Red and his soul shards are attached to is an artefact. Essence manipulation was all about the expression. Some types of essence were better at certain expressions than others.

To say that one type of essence was better at making artefacts than other is misleading. Blue prided himself on experimenting. The spells that the widowlings were able to wield were originally magic techniques Red and Blue's original knew.

Imperial Eagle Storm Burst, Frozen Wolves Hunt, and Promethium Thought Bomb were fueled exclusively by blue essence. After practicing those techniques hundreds of thousands of times they were merged with his own blue essence. Even now Blue could use weakened versions of those techniques. The spiders too inherited those magics.

Blue was certain Red remembered their original's red magics. Every cultivator maintained three spells and often trained with them throughout their long lives.

As for the artefact Blue was enchanting three golems. They were tossed aside by the spiders and it took a while for Blue to rebuild them. With one of the golems rebuilt, he began to infuse it with essence. Once he was certain it was full of essence, he sent an enchantment to the golem. The golem rose from its laying position and stood up. It walked to their seed and picked it up.

"Blue what are you doing?" Red demanded.

"You know as well as I do that yellow sunlight is needed to make this seed grow. Don't you want to be one person again?" Blue questioned.

"We need a safe place to sprout otherwise we'll lose our one chance." Red argued.

"That isn't like you. Don't you trust me?" Blue asked.

Their seed was moved to a small room filled with golem parts. In the center of the room was a small copper ring with a glowing yellow dot in the middle. It was an artefact that took Blue a month to get right. The enchantments were simple but easily destroyed.

"Our original saw one of those before. It's a solar ring, a home made one. Is this what you've been working on all this time?" Red asked.

"We can't risk ourselves and growing upwards is a mistake. We could go down but there are problems there as well. Soon my widowlings will go to war with the ninja down below. But not until their ready." Blue said.

"What are those in the corner?" Red asked.

Suddenly, one of them stood up with red glowing energy in its eye holes. Red had already possessed one of the golems before Blue explained anything. He pointed his finger at a rock. A mirror appeared in front of his finger before a beam of light shot out. It cut through the rock leaving a trail of molten stone. That resolved the question if he remembered any spells or not.

"I'm not losing any essence maintaining this body. You've really outdone yourself." Red said from his side of the seed.

Despite having a new body, they were still within the seed. But Blue was willing to try something even more interesting. He quickly took control of his golem and felt the hinged fingers for himself. He opened and closed five fingers feeling alive again. Then he opened his mouth.

"They can't really speak but if you vibrate your essence in the throat you have something similar." Blue revealed.

"You can also hear with essence." Red said.

He picked up a rock and held it in his hand. We could feel pain through essence why not feel the rocks we pick up or the ground when we walked.

"The widowlings have a caste that build golems for Widow and her pretorians to use. They pay them in credits correct." Red said.

"Those credits can then be used to purchase food and other resources. They've begun using dyed silk to create works of art. Something about our essence merges human physiology with our progeny. With each evolution they become a little bit more human." Blue revealed.

"They don't have a mating season anymore either. That's why widowlings have been pumped out at an insane rate. Their population is growing at an impossible rate balanced by their livestock's equally fast rate." Red said.

"The beetle ninja captured a few of my widowlings and are studying them." Blue said.

The third Hokage walked into a meeting room. Several heads of the civilian council were present, but some were missing. When the Hokage took his seat the council officially began.

"Hokage sama we of the civilian council request immediate aid. We have an epidemic on our hands. Dozens have died from spider bites. Your citizens are terrified of going near these creatures." One councilman said pointing at the spiders in a glass case held by a member of the Aburame clan.

"Ken Aburame, you are our expert in Arachne biology and physiology. Why are these spiders going out of their way to kill exterminators? This doesn't seem to be the act of an unintelligent creature. From the death tole this is revenge." Hiruzen said.

"Hokage sama that is exactly what this is. I've studied these creatures for several weeks and discovered that they are intelligent. They have their own language and writing system. I've sent my own insects into their nests and discovered primitive insect farming. They have libraries containing information in a language like our own writing. We shouldn't act rashly in this situation." Ken said.

"You must be joking Hokage sama they're just bugs right. They can't be that intelligent." The councilman said.

"Their actions and the word of my shinobi reflect otherwise. This world is vast and much of it is undiscovered. Continue your investigation Ken. For now, is there a way to make conditions less than pleasant for them. Can we convince them to move?" Hiruzen asked.

"They dislike hot, dry, and bright places. If you ensure your home isn't suitable for their nesting they won't nest there. But there is another problem Hokage sama. They breed at an alarming rate. In a year's time if the cold doesn't kill them, we could be swarmed by them." Ken warned.

"Is this an invasive species?" Hiruzen asked.

"No, it seems to be the equivalent of a sage creature. Such as Lord Jaraiya's toad summons. They are merely developing at an incredible rate." Ken said.

"We will have our top minds working around the clock until a way to communicate with these creatures is found." Hiruzen stated.

"It seems we're in an excellent position. We've both branched out to the point where we no longer keep track of the number of our progeny. Soon this world will be taken over by our progeny one way or another. That isn't the goal is it?" Red asked.

"No, we whether this planet is taken over by our essence or not doesn't matter. We need only to gather enough to protect this seed while it grows. Once the tree of resurrection has matured, we must reach our grand master states. Once we reach our highest essence cultivation levels, we must merge into Purple. Once we have merged and become Purple, we can truly resurrect." Blue said.

"Do you really want to cease to exist? That isn't like you Blue." Red questioned.

"We won't cease to exist we are the same person with two different viewpoints. We are planning and action. This is my plan but without you I'll choke and fail to act. I can't do this without you Red." Blue said.

"Alright, I noticed some differences between when we first arrived and now. The more essence I have the less irrational I become. That's my humanity isn't it?" Red asked.

"As for the battle between the ninja and the windowlings. Naruto is the plan. He has a connection with the village leader." Blue said.

Ao the widowling stared at her giant friend. The blonde had quickly become fluent in her language with a heavy accent. He couldn't produce some of the sharper sounds and his clicking was slow. It was passable. She walked across his desk as he continued to take note after note on his chakra theory. Leaves stuck to his tan skin at an astonishing rate. At first, she reasoned it was some type of stealth to protect him from predators. Only to find out it was a practice to gain control of the energy within his body. She practiced as well with tiny pieces of iron.

She had practiced her electrical spells well and quickly gained a new ability. There was a force she could capitalize on. Iron could be manipulated with fine control with her lightning elemental jutsu as her Giant friend called it. Naruto had many words for things she didn't know existed. She'd written r discoveries on scrolls of tiny pieces of paper and sent them to the labyrinth library for study. Before she knew it, she was in the electric caste. Her mother loved putting them in places.

Naruto turned to look as her as she slowly made her way up his arm. She made platforms for herself out of iron shavings as training. The blond insisted that the only way to improve was to study and practice. She was beginning to believe in him. Now in a forest of his blond hair she settled down as he took notes.

Knowing she was safe from predators she closed her eyes and relaxed.

Naruto worked harder than any 5-year-old had a right to. He was driven in a way that only essence could make a person. He often created chakra strings to pull things to himself instead of getting up these days. It was from Ao, she was a bad influence. All the naps she took on his head inspired him to find ways to be lazy. Chakra strings were only one avenue. He locked himself out of his apartment and climbed through one of the high windows. Instead of climbing like normal. He stuck himself to the house like a spider and crawled up the wall.

He made a note in his journal about his chakra. It was changing from yellow to blue. Every day his charka turned a darker shade of blue and became easier to control. Days ago, he could only stick ten leaves now he could stick ninety. In a few months he'd join the academy, then he'd really start improving.

"Hey Ao chan, are you awake." The spider on his head slowly stood up.

"I am now." Ao chan replied.

"Will you go to the academy with me. Other ninjas have their partners, I thought you could be mine." Naruto said.

"That word doesn't mean what you think it means broodmate would be better. If I don't feel safe, I'm hiding up here and I won't come out." Ao assured.

"Thank you Ao chan the academy would be boring without you." Naruto said.

"I thought you took the boy's spirit sensitivity away." Red said.

"I did and he adapted to using it with his chakra. His essence pool has increased much faster than I thought possible. It seems, he was a natural red." Blue said.

"By taking in some Blue, he balanced out becoming much more effective." Red stated.

"What of yours, I wouldn't call him a blue that needed some red?" Blue asked.

"He's become more impulsive than ever and powerful. He eats and breaths taijutsu and fire release. Naruto would destroy him." Red said.

"How do you figure?" Blue asked.

Blue would personally go for a war of attrition Red's were known for their high damage potential and low magical stamina. Sasuke would be no different. Finding an external source of red essence to draw from or spirit restoration pills would be difficult in this world. Chakra didn't restore used spirit energy. Only a fresh infusion of essence could do that or spirit pills that weren't here.

Then again most of his defensive spells were lost in the travel here. Blue would have to make some from scratch.

"Naruto is a tricky kid. From what I've seen, he's quick to come up with new plans and he's great at executing them. As long as he doesn't play fair he'll win." Red said.

Blue wasn't so sure. It seemed like a curb stomp on Sasuke's end. He'd have to see for himself. Once the academy started.


End file.
